I read The Chief with interest last week. In the unsigned editorial it advanced the premise that meeting late at night is in conflict to our stated position of having open and transparent government.
The issue was a motion that was made at 11 p.m. By that time, The Chief reporter had gone home for the night because Council was dealing with our in-camera (closed) agenda. Council does go into private meetings to discuss matters related to personnel, land and legal issues.
The reason council meets 'in camera' is because the law says we must. As much fun as it may be for some, we are not legally permitted to discuss legal, personnel or certain land matters in public. Period. There is not much gray area here, nor should there be. These are issues that require the highest levels of confidentiality.
The reason council meets late at night on occasion is to speed up business. It should also noted that we do not start meetings late at night; they simply go late because of the volume of work. Only in local government would you be criticized for putting in too many hours.
I hate to shatter any illusions here, but there is not a single member of our seven-person council team who looks forward to meeting late into the night.
Let me give you a typical example: regular council meeting goes from 7 to 10:30 p.m. An in-camera Council session is then held that goes from 10:45 to 11:30 p.m. At the in-camera session, council - in this hypothetical example - votes to give company ABC the approval to purchase land parcel 123 in Squamish.
At 11:30 p.m. when the in camera items that we discussed in private (as is the law) have been dealt with, Council deliberately meets in public at the earliest possible moment (ie. right then and there) to announce the news to allow staff to communicate to the developer (in this case) first thing the following morning, because the sooner the proponent has clarity and certainty on his/her project, the sooner the DOS can secure tax revenue from the property and the sooner the residents of Squamish can enjoy the new amenity.
It's a pretty basic approach. It's one that stresses urgency, solutions and is very mindful of time. It may sell more newspapers by generating some controversy with headlines that speak to 'secret' meetings, but the facts don't support it. The meetings are more efficient than they ever could be secret.
To me, The Chief's editorial raises some interesting questions: should we stop all meetings by 10 p.m. so no one has to stray up late? I know members of Council would be in agreement. Of course, some citizens and developers might be upset they would have to wait two more weeks for their matter to be dealt with.
Perhaps I should phone The Chief after each motion is passed. This would save them from the trouble of actually attending the meetings and doing their job.
Maybe we should do everything in open session and not have the closed meetings. It would be interesting to talk about personnel and legal issues in open session, and our lawyers would certainly appreciate the extra work the lawsuits would generate.
Here are the simple facts, boring as they may be. Council meets for regular meetings on the first and third Tuesday of the month for regular meetings. We also sometimes have "special" meetings on the alternate Tuesdays, and occasionally during the day of regular council session. The only reason these meetings are called "special" is they are outside of the normally-scheduled meetings. However, the agenda is always posted at least 48 hours before the meeting, and minutes of these meetings are always available. And these meetings are also open to the public, except when dealing with in-camera items. These extra meetings are generally called to deal with "paperwork issues", and to keep projects and initiatives moving through the system. They are also used when presentations are needed on things like Hwy. 99 upgrades an we want to spend 60 minutes or more on one topic.
Squamish is going through a period of enormous activity and growth. People tell us they want city hall to move faster; "at the speed of business" is the way Coun. Jeff Dawson phrases it.
To achieve this, we must have more meetings, and we must meet late into the night on some occasions. Meeting for two hours twice a month will not get the community where it wants to be.
